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Palaeontologists have introduced the invention of a beforehand unknown small armoured dinosaur in southern Argentina, a creature that most likely walked upright on its again legs roaming a then-steamy panorama about 100m years in the past.
The Cretaceous interval dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, would have been well-protected with rows of bony disc-shaped armour alongside its neck and again and all the way down to its tail, they stated. It measured about 5ft (1.5 meters) lengthy and weighed solely 9-15lb (4-7kg), just like a mean home cat.
Its fossilized stays had been dug up over the previous decade close to a dam in Patagonia in Río Negro province’s La Buitrera palaeontological zone. The scientists described jakapil in a examine printed on Thursday within the journal Scientific Stories.
The scientists stated jakapil marked a first-of-its-kind discovery of an armoured dinosaur from the Cretaceous in South America. It’s a part of the thyreophoran dinosaur group that features the likes of stegosaurus, recognized for its bony again plates and spiky tail, and tank-like ankylosaurus, coated in armour and wielding a club-like tail.
Lead palaeontologist Sebastián Apesteguía and his colleagues discovered a partial skeleton of jakapil together with 15 tooth fragments that includes a leaf-like form, just like iguana enamel.
Jakapil resembles a primitive type of thyreophoran that lived a lot earlier, making it a shock that it dated from the Cretaceous. Apesteguía stated by no means earlier than had such a thyreophoran been dug up anyplace within the southern hemisphere.
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